Video: Now you’re just Obama that I used to know

posted at 4:01 pm on August 9, 2012 by Erika Johnsen

With the song being run ragged over the radio waves, parodies abound — but I’m posting this one because I actually think it pretty accurately portrays the mood of disappointment and disenchantment young people are feeling with President Obama these days. Not to mention, the classic Hopenchange background is a clever take on Gotye’s original music video, and the lyrics (“the change I got is that I moved in with my mother”) are pretty darn witty:

Not exactly the energized, youthful enthusiasm of 2008, is it? ABC talked with the two Harvard grads behind the vid:

In a video posted online this week, Justin Monticello and Ryan Newbrough, both Harvard University graduates, replaced the lyrics of Goyte’s hit summer song “Somebody that I Used to Know” with a downtrodden ballad mourning Obama’s unfulfilled promises. …

“I think the main goal that we had in making this was first to be funny and reach people but in general just to kind of highlight a few of these things that we thought were less dependent on the political circumstances and more dependent on Obama’s will to do things,” Monticello told ABC News. …

“People feel they had invested so much in Obama on what he had said and what he was capable of and it just hasn’t happened that way,” he said.

The Harvard graduate-turned-director said that he and Newbrough, the video’s co-creator, were “swept up” in Obama’s fervor last election but are undecided on who to vote for this year.

Yikes. It’s not like these guys are hardcore conservatives, and they don’t seem like they’re completely politically ignorant, either — they’re just two of the many young people enthralled with President Obama’s message the first time around who have come to find that his promises haven’t been all they were cracked up to be. While President Obama still seems to be leading with the youngest voting generation, the enthusiasm is not what it was in 2008. How will the loss of so much youthful vigor affect Obama this November? It hasn’t been looking too good so far, especially if it means the more numerous older generations are being propelled to the polls in greater numbers:

The enthusiasm of the Millennial Generation for Obama, who is now 50, fueled his election victory four years ago. Though still backing him, younger voters have lost some of their ardor while seniors have become significantly more engaged than in 2008 on behalf of the 65-year-old Romney — and they are much more likely to vote.

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